1. Technical Field
This invention generally relates to fingernail files, and more particularly to a conical nail file for filing the underside of a nail adjacent to the cuticle.
2. Background
Long, manicured painted fingernails have been popular throughout humankind's history. The traditional way of creating long, manicured fingernails is to allow them to grow, and to carefully care for them by filing to keep them in proper shape and by periodic painting with fingernail polish. However, there now exists a number of alternatives to the natural, long fingernail, including the acrylic or artificial fingernail formed either with the aid of an artificial fingernail tip which is attached to the natural fingernail, or simply by molding or sculpting an acrylic fingernail which itself is directly attached to the tip.
In both cases, the natural fingernail is first prepared by filing it and etching it with an acid, and then washing it with alcohol to prepare a clean surface to which an adhesive and/or the acrylic material will adhere. Typically, this is done with a traditional flat nail file followed by a wash in alcohol, and the application of a priming chemical, typically acid based, such as methacrylic acid in solution with iso butyl methacrylate.
Once the fingernail has been prepared, a liquid acrylic solution, which will harden and eventually form the final acrylic fingernail, is prepared by the mixture of an acrylic polymer with an acrylic monomer, such as acrylic ester polymer and benzoyl peroxide silica with acrylic ester monomer with NN4 diamethyle P and toludine 0 hydroxy benzophenone. The combination forms a plastic acrylic which can be applied using a small brush to the natural fingernail and sculpted with a brush. This type of acrylic will harden generally within a few minutes, and repeated applications of additional acrylic material can eventually be formed into a natural looking, but long and sculpted, acrylic fingernail.
The acrylic material can be applied either atop a plastic fingernail tip, which has been glued using various adhesives to the natural fingernail, or simply attached directly to the primed natural fingernail and sculpted to form a long, acrylic fingernail.
In the case where the tip is not used and a sculpted fingernail is desired, oftentimes the manicurist will use a temporary bridge-like mold or form, which is positioned in front of and adjacent to the natural fingernail to support the sculpted acrylic fingernail until such time as it hardens and is able to remain in place without the aid of a mold.
Once the acrylic fingernail has been formed using the brush, it is filed using traditional flat fingernail files of varying grits, starting with a coarse grit and ending with the finest of grits to form the finished fingernail. The finished acrylic fingernail is then painted an appropriate color and the formation of the acrylic fingernail is completed.
In both cases, the use of acrylic material can often result in the sealing off of the area between the cutis or nail bed and the free end of the natural fingernail. This is both unsightly, and also presents hygienic problems, particularly with respect to the developments of molds and funguses between the natural nail and the nail bed. Therefore, it is necessary, once the acrylic fingernail has been formed, to file out the area between the acrylic fingernail and the natural nail bed to open it up to the same degree that it naturally would be with a short, manicured, natural fingernail. It is difficult to reach this area on the underside of the fingernail, since it is a concave surface and not easily filed or cleaned using a traditional flat fingernail file.
Some of the prior art solutions are to use a metal or wooden pick, and even a conventional power routing tool with a fine router bit. However, all of these prior art solutions pose some danger of injury to the end of the finger and/or the nail bed and have generally not proven to be satisfactory.
Accordingly, what is needed is a fingernail file specifically designed to reach into and file the concave underside surface of the acrylic fingernail adjacent to the free end of the natural fingernail and nail bed.